NY to study Onondaga Lake fish eaters’ health

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) >> New York’s Health Department plans to study Burmese and Bhutanese refugees who eat a lot of fish from Onondaga Lake to determine their exposure to mercury, pesticides, PCBs and other toxins.

Under a study described in the Federal Register on Monday, health officials will also test Syracuse city residents whose diet relies heavily on fish from the lake. Officials want to include 300 refugees and 100 urban dwellers in the study, which will test blood and urine samples.

The study is funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s part of a federal program launched in 2009 to study human exposure to toxins in the Great Lakes region.

The Health Department has advisories cautioning people to limit consumption of fish from Onondaga Lake.